Community Altar November 2017

November 11 is commemorated in many western countries as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, Veterans’ Day, or by a similar name. The original day was established in observance of those who had served in World War I, at the time called “The War to End All Wars”; now in the US, it is a day to honor the veterans of all wars.

This month’s community altar honors all victims of war: those who were injured or killed fighting, the civilians who suffered and died, those who lost loved ones, homes, and years of their lives to the cruelties of war.

There are two sets of images. The lower set has Picasso’s painting of “Guernica” at the center. The image to the left is of Syrian refugees from 2012. The image to the right is Rwanda in 1994. The image at the top right is of Sandinista Rebels in Chontales jungle of Nicaragua. The final image in the lower set is of the drawing titled “Reflections” by Lee Teter, which shows a man mourning his dead friends at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.

The top image is a peace symbol, the hope of all people, and especially of those whose lives have been destroyed by war. Within its circle are three notable women, recognized as peace advocates. The bottom of the circle is occupied by Anne Frank. The top right of the circle features Kathleen Tacchi-Morris. The circle is completed by the photo of Malala Yousafzai.

The images are black-and-white and printed on plain paper to convey the factual reality of the images, and to evoke the sense of a newspaper or a documentary, of the undeniable reality of both the horrors of war and the courageous efforts of those who work to create peace.

The images are topped by a fresh bouquet of pink roses, symbolizing peace, hope, and the sweetness of life.

The community candle is inscribed with the words “Peace”, “Justice”, and “Equality”. When these become the guiding principles of our world, we can live free of war.

Until then, we keep working to create common bonds and mutual understanding, bringing peace into the world, one person at a time.

Peace be upon you, within and without.

Ordeal
~ Nina Cassian

I promise to make you more alive than you’ve ever been.
For the first time you’ll see your pores opening
like the gills of a fish and you’ll hear
the noise of blood in galleries
and feel light gliding on your corneas
like the dragging of a dress across the floor.
For the first time, you’ll note gravity’s prick
like a thorn in your heal,
and your shoulder blades will hurt from the imperative of wings.
I promise to make you so alive that
the fall of dust on furniture will deafen you,
and you’ll feel your eyebrows like two wounds forming
and your memories will seem to begin
with the creation of the world.

Loki Look-Alike – The model is Alvir aka Kirakawa on DA

Lament
~ Gerda Mayer

Youth my
youth you lie
dead your vi
olent vi
olet passions and
follies your
silly green
hopes crushed
your grey
wind that
roared through
the world
pricked and de
flated
your gold-hoofed
high blood
slug
gish
and te
thered
your hys
terical
fountains
dry
whilst I
sit in
my e
nor
mous
ramshackle
ego
tistical house
a fat mid
dle aged wo
man smel
ling of
onions

Bowl of onions

A Flower-Piece by Fantin
~Algernon Charles Swinburne

Heart’s ease or pansy, pleasure or thought,
Which would the picture give us of these?
Surely the heart that conceived it sought
Heart’s ease.

Surely by glad and divine degrees
The heart impelling the hand that wrought
Wrought comfort here for a soul’s disease.

Deep flowers, with lustre and darkness fraught,
From glass that gleams as the chill still seas
Lean and lend for a heart distraught
Heart’s ease.

Fleurs par Henri Fantin Latour

The Double Axe
~ Anne Hazlewood-Brady

With torches have I wandered the dark poppy world
Looking for Serena, my daughter with green eyes.
Wearing the colors of clouds just after sunset
She has been hidden archly in the curl of a wave.
Once, in the streets, I saw her marching with men,
fifteen striding; she moved like a lily and was gone.
She has called to me with the voices of dovces
And her anger, green as ice in the pale bay,
Is like a shield against the unrelenting cold.
When each morning she wakes me singing in the new light
Or when I discern her far-off, bed-time moaning,
Serena with green eyes becomes all our daughters,
And on those who betray her, vested with my love,
The double axe will fall like boulders of thunder.

Minoan Goddess with Double Headed Axe